One of the most overlooked things in your fantasy football league is how the draft order is chosen.
Don’t randomly generate your draft order! Create a fun way to improve your fantasy football experience with these draft order ideas. Some are simple. Others, not so much. Pick the best option for you and your league based on how invested you want to be.
Start your fantasy league season the right way, and make picking your draft order a fun event you will remember forever.
Here are some ideas to get you started.
Fantasy Football Draft Order Ideas
1. Tournaments — Video game & other
Think Madden, NCAA Football, Mario Kart, or Super Smash Bros. Set up a bracket-style tournament, get everyone together online or in person, and let the games begin.
One of the best parts about this option is that you can play online, stream the games so everyone can watch, and bet on the games between league members.
Other tournament-friendly games, such as Texas Hold ‘Em, beer pong, and flip cup, are also popular ways to determine your league draft order.
2. Draft Combine/Sports Competitions
Imagine all of your friends participating in an NFL Combine-like competition to determine your league draft order. If can get everybody together to do this, you have to try it at least once.
You can use one competition, such as the 40-yard dash, to determine the order, or create a backyard Olympic format with multiple contests that determine the order based on the best overall performance.
Pick and choose from these ideas:
- 40-yard dash
- Passing accuracy
- Field-goal contest
- Punting contest
- Cornhole
- Mini Golf
- Table tennis
- Darts
- Axe throwing
- Go-kart racing
- Bowling
- Whiffle ball
For those who enjoy indulging in a few adult beverages, you can also mix in a few of these favorites:
- Beer Mile
- Beer Pong
- Beer Die
- Caps
- Dizzy Bat
- Flip Cup
- Quarters
3. Playlist Shuffle
Want to keep things a little more chill? This idea is as easy as hitting shuffle on your favorite music app.
Each league member picks a song to add to a playlist, the commissioner hits shuffle, and the song that plays determines the draft order.
As your new fantasy playlist plays, the anticipation builds. By the end, you have a fantasy draft order and usually a very diverse playlist.
📈 Need help with your team? Stay ahead of the pack with our fantasy football rankings.
4. NFL Pick’em/Survivor Contest
Instead of determining your fantasy draft order during the offseason, create another football-focused competition to run alongside your league.
Start an NFL pick’em contest or a survivor pool to test your football knowledge against the rest of your league. If you’re into sports betting, have each league member make five picks against the spread each week, with the season’s top picker getting the No. 1 pick next season.
These pools are great ways to select future draft orders as they keep league members engaged throughout the season, even if their fantasy team isn’t doing well.
5. Wonderlic Test/SAT
Test-taking is typically reserved for fantasy football punishments, but some leagues are willing to flip the script and subject all members to the SAT or Wonderlic. Hope you’ve got your No. 2 pencils handy.
Fun Ways to Pick Your Fantasy Draft Order
6. Pizza Order
This is one of the most unique ideas I have seen. Each league member chooses their favorite pizza spot, orders the same type of pizza, and waits for the deliveries. The sequence of pizza arrivals decides the draft order. It’s like getting a slice of excitement with every box that arrives.
7. Celebrity Cameo
Every league member chips in for a celebrity cameo — the league commissioner can pick one, or you can all choose one together. I prefer when the league commissioner picks since the surprise will make it even more entertaining.
The celebrity will then randomly determine your draft order. I love this method because the video lasts a lifetime, and some league members form a life-long beef with your chosen celeb.
🏈 Stay tuned during the season for our fantasy football tips.
8. Eating/Drinking Competitions
Food, beer, and fantasy football, what’s better than that?
Compete with your league mates in a hot dog-eating or beer-chugging competition. The results will determine your fantasy draft order.
9. Horse Racing
Embrace the thrill of horse racing season by incorporating it into your draft order selection process.
Choose between various horse race-related methods, such as determining the order based on the amount of money won or lost during a day at the races. Alternatively, each participant can select a horse in a designated race, and the order of the horses’ finish dictates the draft order.
This method bridges the excitement of sports betting with the camaraderie of fantasy football.
😴 Who will exceed expectations? Read up on our fantasy football sleepers.
10. 100 Yard Rush
If you’re in a pinch and need a way to determine your draft order online, 100 Yard Rush is an entertaining alternative to randomizing your draft order.
Like picking the horses in a race, this program allows you to customize your race across a virtual football field. You get to select the number of players running, their uniform colors, and the speed of the race — with minimum and maximum yards per rush.
If your league has anti-tanking measures or rules similar to the NBA Draft Lottery system, you can even influence each player’s chances of winning the race.
I used this platform to pick my league’s draft order last season, and watching the race play out over Zoom with all my buddies was a truly memorable experience.
